Within/Without

Peace. Last week I took my 1st sweat at a sweat lodge. I wanted to wait to articulate my feelings. A visit to a sweat lodge was on my hippie bucket list. I was VERY excited when the opportunity fell into my lap. And the timing was perfect. I was coming off my annual fast… Right before the Asiatic New year (solar holiday)…. During a full moon (lunar holiday). And all the elements were represented. The Fire, the Steam, the Wood and me… The Earth! All at the perfect concentric-ness. It was sublime. The sweat lodge was a dedicated lodge with a wood stove inside. The keeper kept it going and fed the stove and a fire directly outside the lodge. He also had herb infused water that he threw on the wood stove that gave off steam and threw on us. The location of the lodge was on a land trust in the middle of the city. That in itself was amazing to me. You just don’t expect that in an urban environment. Original people were the organizers of the sweat. I appreciated that. I don’t trust hi...

Peace. Y'all know I'm a "tryer". My newest thing to try is Kombucha. It's a fizzy fermented drink. It is pretty damn tasty too. Because it is fermented it is loaded with probiotics and enzymes. I have discussed how I don't trust that my stomach makes all the enzymes and has the flora to give me bountiful health so I thought this would be good for me. The 7 heard that it was powerhouse of healthy goodness. So..... I found a recipe. Now I could buy Kombucha in the store... But the price is about #3.50/20 oz bottle. No... Sorry... ain't about to fix my mouth up to fall in love or get addicted to something that costs that much. That's a pack of cigarettes for a beverage! What is Kombucha? Kombucha is a naturally carbonated fermented drink made from sweet tea. Kombucha is consumed all over the world. It has been part of many cultures for thousands of years. Kombucha popped up in China over 2,000 years ago, and has been traveling the world in vario...

Peace. I said I wasn’t going to do a bunch of blogging about this fast, because there is really not much new to talk about. I do this every year. Every year it’s the same. But… I don’t do the master cleanser every year. I have attempted it only once before and made it 5 days. The salt water flushes did me in. The SWF caused heart palpitations that lasted for 12 hours. I had the shakes too. It was too much for me. According to research maybe I was too dirty to master cleanse. Well I hardly believe that! So this season, I decided to master cleanse at the end of my fast. This way…. I’m cleaner and then I can reward myself when the fast is over. Also… I’m not doing the SWFs. That’s too much for me. I will take the laxative teas but not the SWFs. No. Not gonna do it. Even with the laxative teas… I’m amazed at what’s still inside. I haven’t eaten in over 2 weeks… I assumed everything was out! It’s not…. So far…. The regular fast was fine with the exception of all the free food being th...

Peace. 'Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food' ~ Hippocrates….. That quote is not bullshit. I am one of these people who likes to do the Knowledge to the different foods. Normally when I come up on a new food, I want to know not only how to prepare it, but what it’s good for. So I did a small experiment…. I wrote down all the ingredients for food (in this case juice, since I’m fasting) that I have been eating. From that list I researched the health benefits of each of the different foods ingested. It was very easy since I’m, right now, only ingesting fruits and vegetables. Do you know what I found???? I finally understand what ‘healthy’ means. Natural foods are just that… healthful. These foods reduce blood pressure, prevent diabetes, reduce bad cholesterol, anticancer prevents Alzheimer’s, provide antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and much, much more. If we ate foods in the natural unprocessed state… and by unprocessed I mean without chemical, Franken-f...

Peace. Today marks Day 8 of my annual 21 day cleanse. It’s going fast. Not fast in the terms that time is flying, but all the detoxing and fast symptoms that usual take the entire fast to kick in kicked in almost instantly. Let me lay out the parameters…. 1. The only nourishment taken in is in liquid form. 2. No dairy products 3. Sun Salutations 4. Tumeric/coriander/triphala fibroid treatment 5. Continue to exercise 6. Daily Pranayamas 7. Meditation 8. Master cleanse for a week. So far so good. The results are interesting. Normally I’m not hungry after Day 3, but I am ravenous. It might be because my cycle is due any day now. And every woman knows that her appetite sky rockets before her cycle. A friend of mine once said she was hungry enough to eat one of her children! I expect this hunger to disappear when my period does. I’m being supper orderly with the juices and supplements. The goal is to get protein, simple carbs and a bit of oil. In the morning I make a s...

Peace. I’m lazy. And I’m ok with that….. I am of the opinion that folks do too much. I used to work with this woman who was from Turkey. She could not understand why I was working 2 jobs when I was married and my husband worked. I explained that I wanted the money. We worked the same position and started at the same time. Our salaries were the same so she knew how much I made. She then asked me when is enough, enough? That got me thinking… and I have kept thinking to this day. Yacub’s world manifest teaches that we should always work and work to have more and more. Our closets are full as are our pantries. We have no time for anything other than the acquisition of wealth. We pass these traits on to our kids who are so over scheduled that we have to schedule play dates for them with other over scheduled children. I say ENOUGH! After my contract ran out for the job with the Turkish woman, I moved to Atlanta with my late husband. I was starting completely fresh and it gave me an...

Peace. I have questions…. And this is a consistent question that I have that I have never been able to get a solid answer… And I want you to be mindful that I don’t have all the answers. I just keep working my program with a foundation until I get a result. I am a scientist. But I still have questions….. Fermented foods…. Is this something beneficial to Original people? When I Google fermented food benefits… those touting benefits are always white and Asian people. NEVER Black people. When I have done the Knowledge to African, Australian Aboriginal, Polynesian, South American, etc cuisine, and I do not see fermented foods in their diets. I might be missing something. The purpose of fermented foods is to introduce beneficial bacteria to the gut. From research… and not personal opinion… Europeans always existed in different circumstances than other people. They had to deal with a lot of cold climates, caves, cramped and overcrowded dwelling… this type of existence breeds disease....